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Full Freeview on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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The symbol shows the location of the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter which serves 1,870,000 homes. The bright green areas shown where the signal from this transmitter is strong, dark green areas are poorer signals. Those parts shown in yellow may have interference on the same frequency from other masts.

Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) mast?

Sutton Coldfield transmitter - Sutton Coldfield transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 25/03/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels Digital tick


Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
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Which Freeview channels does the Sutton Coldfield transmitter broadcast?

If you have any kind of Freeview fault, follow this Freeview reset procedure first.

Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C43 (650.0MHz)433mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) West Midlands, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 19 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C46 (674.0MHz)433mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Central (West micro region)), 4 Channel 4 (SD) Midlands ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 Midlands ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Central west),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C40+ (626.2MHz)433mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD West Midlands, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Central West), 104 Channel 4 HD Midlands ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others

COM4
SDN
 H max
C42 (642.0MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
Channel icons
20 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others

COM5
ArqA
 H max
C45 (666.0MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others

COM6
ArqB
 H max
C39+ (618.2MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others

LB
 H -13dB
C48 (690.0MHz)433mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
from 31st October 2014: 7 Big Centre TV,

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Sutton Coldfield transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 15km south-southwest (200°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.
regional news image
ITV Central News 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 15km south-southwest (201°)
to ITV Central (West) region - 65 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Central (East)

Are there any self-help relays?

Burton (shobnall)Transposer1 km W Burton-on-Trent60 homes
CoalvilleTransposer18 km NW Leicester600 homes
SolihullTransposerLand Rover building400 homes

How will the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-137 Mar 2018
VHFB E TB E TB E TB E K TW T
C4BBCtvwaves
C33com7
C35com8
C36LOCAL2
C39+ArqBArqB
C40BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves+BBCBBBCB
C42SDNSDN
C43ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCABBCA
C45ArqAArqA
C46BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesD3+4D3+4
C48_local
C50tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4waves
C51tv_offLB
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_off

tv_off Being removed from Freeview (for 5G use) after November 2020 / June 2022 - more
Table shows multiplexes names see this article;
green background for transmission frequencies
Notes: + and - denote 166kHz offset; aerial group are shown as A B C/D E K W T
waves denotes analogue; digital switchover was 7 Sep 11 and 21 Sep 11.

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-4 1000kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 200kW
com7(-10.5dB) 89.2kW
com8(-10.7dB) 86kW
LB(-20dB) 10kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-21dB) 8kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sutton Coldfield transmitter area

Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Feb 2004Central Independent Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014ITV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV Daybreak•
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Sutton Coldfield was not an original Channel 3 VHF 405-line mast: the historical information shown is the details of the company responsible for the transmitter when it began transmitting Channel 3.

Comments
Wednesday, 10 October 2012
R
Rich Booth
10:21 PM
Stafford

Living in Stafford, I think we're pointed at Sutton Coldfield, Aerial in the roof and using a aeriel booster.

Just changed my PVR from a Humax 9200 to a Humax HDR Fox-T2. Working fine except for the COM4 SDN multiplex (Channel 41 ?) which is very flakey indeed. Never had this problem with the old Hummy. Is it likely to be different tolerances on the tuner ? I know we should probably pay to put the aerial outside but i could do without the expense.... any thoughts ?

link to this comment
Rich Booth's 2 posts GB flag
Rich's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:16 PM

Rich Booth: Sutton Coldfields SDN transmitter operates on Mux Ch42, Ch41 is from The Wrekin and which is indicated as providing an inferior level of reception. If you carry out a retune and this happens again then you might have to carry out a Manual tune on each of the muxes one at a time to overcome this problem, the mux channels used by Sutton Coldfield being / 43)BBC) - 46(ITV) - 40(HD) - 42(ITV3) - 45(Pick TV etc) - 39(Yesterday etc).

link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:22 PM

Rich Booth: I notice that for some reason the latter mux was cut off, it being 39 (Film 4 / Yesterday etc).

link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
R
Rich Booth
11:59 PM
Oldbury

jb38: Ive just done another auto retune and all seems to be fine now !!

link to this comment
Rich Booth's 2 posts GB flag
Rich's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Thursday, 11 October 2012
Geoff
10:32 PM

How can i tune in to winter hill rather than
sutton coldfield?

link to this comment
Geoff's 1 post GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:55 PM

Geoff: Either reset your TV by carrying out a factory reset (sometimes called default setting or position ) or remove the aerial and then carry out an auto-tune as this will blank out the tuners memory store, then once complete reconnect the aerial and go into your TV or boxes tuning menu / manual tune and enter the mux channels one at a time as shown in the link, storing same once scan is complete.

Ch62(BBC) - Ch59(ITV) - Ch54(HD if used) - Ch58(10-ITV3 etc) - Ch61(ArqA / 11-Pick TV / 82-Sky news) - Ch55(ArqB / 15-Film4 / 19-Yesterday).

link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Saturday, 13 October 2012
B
BRIAN
4:11 PM

You state above that 1956 saw the inception of this transmitter, but in fact BBC TV was first broadcast just before Christmas in 1949. I remember as a very small boy seeing the first night of it on a 15" HMV set with a figured walnut cabinet and doors at the house of the very wealthy parents of a schoolfriend in Higher Bebington, Wirral, not far from today's Storeton transmitter... we were all spellbound, and went outside to look at the aerial to see if it might be glowing!

link to this comment
BRIAN's 6 posts GB flag
Friday, 19 October 2012
C
clancy
11:28 AM

aerial in loft..cannot get any channels when i re-tune today 19th oct...help

link to this comment
clancy's 1 post GB flag
Tuesday, 23 October 2012
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

5:55 AM

clancy: If you still have a problem, please provide your postcode.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 251 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

6:03 AM

BRIAN: The information provided by Briantist is from when it began ITV transmissions as stated, not the previous history.
However, that's still an interesting story of yours.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 251 posts GB flag
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If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

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